Student Positions

So, you want to work in the Earth Systems Ecology Lab...We are a diverse group, with diverse interests. Although diverse, the glue that binds us is employing quantitative approaches to research. Because of this I am open to students having a variety of backgrounds as long as they have a quantitative bent. Natural systems are complex and attempting to understand this complexity requires math and statistics. If you haven’t taken statistics and calculus at a minimum, my lab may not be the best fit for you.

My students typically work on some aspect of a project for which we have funding. However, my expectation is that they will develop their own, unique set of research questions. If the student is pursuing a MS, I offer quite a bit of guidance and the research questions are often much more constrained by the project. However, if pursuing a PhD, my expectation is that the student will develop into an independent scientist. As such, I will provide some guidance to ensure the student can complete the research, but I leave the creative process to the student. Whether a MS or PhD student, being successful in my lab requires that you be an independent thinker.

I have put together the following information based on my own experiences, the experiences of others, and discussions with colleagues about what it takes to be successful in graduate school and the transition from school to career. While these suggestions may or may not be more broadly applicable, I have written them to provide guidelines for success in my lab.

Fair Warning

Before you read any further, please heed these words of warning: if you are considering graduate school because you are unsure what else you want to do, please don’t apply to work in my lab. That being said, I don’t expect that you will know precisely what research question on which you want to focus. To make your time in my lab beneficial and enjoyable, you need to view this as a means to an end and not the end itself. Graduate school is a substantial undertaking. It requires an immense amount of effort and devotion. It should be fun, but at times you may hit rough patches. Aspects of your research will crash-and-burn. You will make mistakes that set you back. However, this is part of the scientific process and making mistakes and learning from them help make you a better scientist. Science is as much a creative process as it is a technical one. Often times we develop hypotheses based on our perception of how a system works and after experimentation, we get confirmation that out perception is mostly correct. However, my absolute favorite part of this process is when experimentation yields surprising results and I learn my perceptions were incorrect. In my opinion, this is where we make the greatest steps in increasing our understanding and it is also the most exciting part! Embrace the uncertainty!

Assuming that you read the warning and feel your tendencies toward self-abuse are such that you want to continue reading, I think it is important for you to know that I love what I do. This is not some statement with the qualifier “for a living” tacked on to the end. I identify myself as a scientist. I very much enjoy backcountry skiing. What makes it even better is when I am up-tracking with my friends and we are discussing science. I spend the majority of my time thinking about science and the natural world. Whether working on a basic question or a question with direct societal relevance, as a scientist I get to participate in this wonderful process of knowledge discovery and I find it to be extremely rewarding.

Alright, now that I have waxed philosophically, there is an extremely important rule in my lab. Rule number one is that we treat each other with respect. If you don’t want to be a decent human being, I don’t want you in my lab. This includes respecting people’s experiences, opinions, and time. I mention time because it is one of the most finite resources we have and is therefore a precious commodity. If you join my lab, you will be doing exactly that, joining a group of people that are excited by science and have similar research interests. I strive and expect my research group to strive to ensure the success of everyone working in our group and to do this we need to respect one another. Now, assuming you have read the warning, are seriously excited by the prospect of employing the scientific method to discover knowledge, and are a respectful human being, we can get down to business.

Interdisciplinary Work - Many of the research questions that interest me require an interdisciplinary approach. This means that I actively engage with researchers in other disciplines. This requires that we have each learned enough about the other’s discipline to communicate and collaborate effectively. However, it is important to remember that without disciplinary expertise we won’t have the skills necessary to answer these questions. If you are inclined toward or have interest in working across disciplinary boundaries, I will provide opportunities as projects and funding sources permit. Keep in mind that first and foremost I expect you to gain disciplinary expertise in your research. Also, if you don’t have the slightest inclination toward interdisciplinary research, not to worry, we have no such requirement.

Sharing Knowledge - One thing that is extremely important to remember is that our work is funded by the public. As a result, it is essential that the work we do in the Earth Systems Ecology Lab is accessible to individuals outside of the scientific community. This certainly does not mean that every project we undertake is directly applicable to society. What it does mean is that we strive to keep information accessible. If you join my lab, you can plan on writing at least one research brief that summarizes your research for a non-technical audience. If your particular project has application to natural systems management, you can plan on writing a research brief for managers. If the opportunity presents itself, you should also plan on giving a talk to a non-technical audience. I don’t expect that you will innately know how to do these things, but I do expect that you will take the opportunities we provide to practice doing them so that you can more effectively communicate your research.

Planning and Time - When I was a kid I used to help my grandfather split firewood. He had a certain way he liked things done. As I got older, I started to realize that I could finish the task much faster by doing things differently. I made some suggestions along the way and given the response they elicited, you would have thought I just ran over his cat with the car. Eventually we both got older and I would split most of the fire wood. He would come out and help for a little while, but when left alone I added the efficiency measures. My point here is not that you should keep more efficient ways of doing things to yourself, but that you shouldn’t run over your grandfather’s cat. Scratch that. My point here is that you should make efficient use of your time and just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean that it is the only way. When you walk into my office, it often looks like the city garbage truck backed up to my desk and made a deposit (which may be but I don’t recall hearing the beeping). However, you will see on the wall a whiteboard where I track all of the projects I am working on. This way I know the status of everything and when impending doom will strike if I don’t have something complete. My work environment may appall some, but it works for me. Buried in this tangent about garbage, cats, and firewood is my suggestion that you figure out how you work most effectively and what approach works best for you to learn and grow as a scientist. I also suggest that you make a list of tasks in the near-, mid-, and long-term and use that list to track your progress and work efficiently. Success is predicated on progress.

You have likely heard or read elsewhere that grad school is not a 40 hour per week job. I could not agree more, so I’ll reiterate it here: graduate school is not a 40 hour per week job. It is important to keep in mind that my students are supported by competitive grant money. This money is awarded based on the expectation that we will undertake, complete, and PUBLISH the research we proposed. And the lab getting awarded more competitive money is in part predicated on our ability to accomplish what we set out to do the last time we received grant money. Add research time to the time required for coursework, attending seminars, reading, etcetera and you are easily at the 60 hour per week mark. One of the great benefits to being a scientist is that with this great responsibility is a lot of freedom and the ability to work on something you are passionate about. It is important to keep in mind, this is not about “putting in the time”, but rather about effectively using this limited resource to engage in a creative process that advances our understanding of the world by developing new knowledge. Inherent in this is the fact that you will often have to choose between working on your research and doing something else. If you choose to do something else, make it a conscious decision so you re-energize for your research. If you are just looking to procrastinate, you are welcome to come over to my house and mow the lawn so I can get back to the science I enjoy.

It is also important to remember that many of the projects we work on in the lab are collaborative projects. This means that there is likely to be someone else that is in need of results from our group to accomplish their research. They are also facing deadlines and part of being a good collaborator is delivering high quality work on time.

Context - By choosing to pursue an advanced degree, you are choosing to gain expertise in a particular subject area. It is extremely important for your success that you actually gain this expertise. You will become intimate with your area of study, the methods you use and your data, so you better make sure you develop a set of research questions, the answers to which you are compelled way down deep inside to find. At the same time, it is imperative that you are widely read and understand the larger context of your work. If you charge into my office proclaiming that you have mathematically captured sea monkey population dynamics, my first question will be since when do we work on sea monkeys in the Earth Systems Ecology Lab? My second question will be how does that fit into the larger picture? You should always know the larger context for your research. Knowing the larger context requires that you are well read, take the opportunity to gain exposure to the work of others, and think about how this information might inform your research. We are living at a time when there is a substantial amount of information readily available. Use it. You are on a University campus where new discoveries are made and shared every day, make yourself aware. Groups on campus spend scarce financial resources to bring outside scholars in to discuss their work. Take advantage of these opportunities!

Learning - Short and sweet. If you don’t enjoy it, why are you even reading this?

A Rewarding Career - Let’s face it, there are many reasons that you are pursuing an advanced degree, but when you graduate you are going to want to work at what you enjoy. Whether this is academic or government research, education, natural systems management, conservation, policy development, or consulting, these positions are highly competitive. One of the first questions I will ask you when you apply to work in my lab is what you want to do when you finish? The reason for this is two-fold. First, this is something I want you to think about so we can ensure you have the skills, experience, and accomplishments required to be successful. Second, each of these career paths requires emphasis of a slightly different skill-set and you need to begin building that skill-set immediately. All of this requires planning and time. Therefore it is important that you figure this out sooner rather than later, so you are prepared. If you are wanting to pursue a PhD and a career in academic research, you should be eyes wide open to the fact that competition is fierce for these positions. It is highly unlikely that you will complete your dissertation and step into your first tenure-track position. You will likely have to first complete several productive years as a postdoc and this position better be in your area of interest with ample opportunity for publications and preferably the opportunity to contribute to grant writing. Thus, it is important that you don’t wait until you are in the final throws of editing your dissertation to start looking for jobs. You need to start meeting other researchers and cultivating relationships well in advance of finishing your degree. I will provide some opportunities and it is important you take these. It is also important that you make your own opportunities.

Expectations - I thought about moving this to the beginning of this document, but I decided to keep it here because I figured that if it were first you might stop reading before learning about how splitting firewood and running over cats with a car could be used in the same paragraph. On a more serious note, I never want anyone in my group feeling that my expectations are unclear, so I will lay them out here:

1. Be respectful – This includes being considerate of other’s views, experiences and time. Your success is dependent on help from many others. This includes the help of support staff, other students and researchers, and your committee. The best way to ensure that help is to be respectful. Don’t wait until the last minute and expect people to drop what they are doing to help or provide feedback. Your committee, myself included, is not sitting around waiting for your latest draft so we can get to work on it immediately. If you have a deadline that requires input from others, give them the time to provide you with useful feedback. I strive to turn papers back to students quickly. I define quickly as one to two weeks, depending on my schedule. Some people consider the rate of uplift of the Himalya to be quick. Plan accordingly.

2. Develop a plan and complete it – There is an old saying in science; if you don’t publish it you didn’t do it. I expect that the culmination of your research will be two to four publications, depending your degree plan. You need to develop a plan that will help you reach that goal and then work at it daily.

3. Know the larger context – If anyone asks you why your research matters, or how it fits into the larger picture, you better have a well thought out answer that you can provide without a protracted “um” beforehand.

4. Be helpful – This gets back to expectation number one. Science is a fiercely competitive career. We compete against our colleagues for scare grant funds and for page space in top journals. However, this competition occurs with our COLLEAGUES. In graduate school, your colleagues are your fellow students. When one asks for your help, take it as a compliment and help them if you can. You will rely on others for their help and it is important that you pass along the same good will.

5. Schedule writing time - Once you have collected enough data, model outputs, etc to get a handle on the answer to your research questions, I expect that you will carve out time every day to write. Plan to set aside a continuous block of time of at least three hours to write. Turn off the mobile phone, email program, and other distractions and write. Some days you may struggle to put together one decent paragraph in that time. Other days you will get on a roll. Regardless of how productive you are on any given day, commit to spending the allotted time putting pen to paper.

6. Participate – There are lab group meetings, colloquiums, seminars, etcetera. I expect that you will actively engage in these activities. Just showing up is not sufficient. You need to engage. This doesn’t mean that you need to dominate the conversation, but you do need to focus your attention on the activity at hand.

7. Actively pursue funding – I will not agree to have you join the lab without adequate funding to support you. However, this does not mean that I don’t expect my students to pursue other sources of support. There are graduate fellowships that support students (e.g. EPA STAR, NSF GRF, etc). These are excellent opportunities to gain practice applying for competitive funding. They are also excellent opportunities to refine the presentation of your research. There are also travel grants. These are from professional societies and the University. If you want to go to a meeting to present your work, I expect that you will apply for these. Failing to get one does not preclude you from going to a meeting. However, if you are successful it allows me to provide opportunities for others to attend.

8. Use the full suite of resources at your disposal – When you don’t know the answer to something, other people are not necessarily the first stop on the road to learning the answer. You should first consult the literature. Once you have consulted the literature, if something is still unclear, ask. It is also beneficial to discuss your ideas with your fellow grad students and other researchers. Remember we don’t conduct research in a vacuum in the Earth Systems Ecology lab. If you’re interested in research in vacuums I suggest contacting someone in physics or at Dyson.

9. Be proactive – Do not sit and wait for opportunities to present themselves. If you are truly interested in something, take the actions necessry to pursue it.

10. Embrace the challenge and have fun!

This list of expectations covers all that I can think of. However, I am the type of person that gets straight to the point when it comes to expectations. If something is unclear, please ask. While I do have high expectations of my students, I reciprocate with a high level of commitment. If you work hard in my lab, I will use everything at my disposal to ensure your success. The inverse is also true, if you don’t give your work 100%, I will put my efforts and resources elsewhere. If you are serious about what you want to study, it aligns with our research group, and you are committed to succeeding, it is time to send me the materials requested in any posted openings I have on the lab website. You should also feel free to contact students in my lab to gain their perspective. Who knows, maybe they’ll tell you I’m a big pushover, give them everything they want, and they don’t have to work very hard for it, but I doubt it.

PhD opportunities

Ensuring sufficient funding is important for a successful PhD program. Students in my lab are supported by both research (RA) and teaching assistantships (TA). If I am recruiting for a specific project with RA funding, details will be posted here. If you have funding from a research fellowship and are interested in joining my lab send your CV, a one-page description of your research interests, and copies of your transcripts (unofficial). The UNM Biology program does not require the GRE!

MS opportunities

None available at this time.

undergraduate opportunities

We are always looking for motivated undergraduates that are interested in conducting independent research. If you are interested in conducting a research project for credit, please email me to schedule a meeting.